1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mask cover assembly in which an exhaust valve including a valve body is separably assembled to a dust proof mask main body, which enables replacement of the mask main body.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a mask cover assembly for use with a sanitary mask, a dust proof mask or other industrial masks that serve to protect a wearer from natural disasters, such as, e.g., generation of a great amount of dust due to environmental contamination, and industrial disasters, such as, e.g., generation of dust or particulate matter or toxic gas under harsh working conditions of industrial sites, in which an expensive exhaust valve can be repeatedly used, rather than being prepared as a disposable product, and a mask main body can be replaced alone when contaminated.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, people who live in areas where dust is generated by environmental disruption, or workers who work in a variety of industrial sites, including paper mills, spinning plants, dye works, quarries and the like, which exhibit generation of a great amount of toxic matter, such as fine dust or toxic gas, are exposed to serious diseases by invasion of the toxic matter into the respiratory system. To protect the health of the people or workers from such harmful environments, various types of masks, such as dust proof masks and the like, have been used in the aforementioned industrial sites and other harmful areas.
In the event that workers have continuously inhaled such fine dust or toxic gas, the workers are liable to diseases, such as pulmonary diseases, respiratory diseases and the like. Moreover, continuous inhalation of a great amount of fine dust or toxic gas into the lungs and the respiratory system may cause fatal damage to the human body. Therefore, many workers who work in industrial sites commonly wear a variety of dust proof masks to protect their health from harmful environments.
As the dust proof masks used for the above described purposes, for example, a mask to which a purge material containing a gas proof material is attached and a mask inside which a filter paper is provided have been used. However, most of these products have a relatively high price and require frequent replacement of a dust proof material because it inevitably exhibits deterioration in function after about 10 hours or more although this lifetime varies depending on an actual working time. In addition, since most conventional dust proof masks have inferior filtering functions, disposable dust proof masks have been used in working sites that attach great importance to sanitation.
A disposable dust proof mask known in the art includes a corrugated main body formed by corrugating a filter paper, hard band hanger portions integrally formed at opposite lateral sides of the filter paper along with holding hands by ultrasonic thermal bonding, and a flexible metal wire provided at the top of the filter paper so as to be freely bendable. When in use, the metal wire can be bent to conform to the profile of the wearer's face so as to ensure that the dust proof mask comes into close contact with the wearer's face. In addition, the corrugated filter paper can be spread out to ensure that the dust proof mask uniformly comes into close contact with the nose and the bottom of the jaw, in order to achieve enhanced dust blocking efficiency.
Hereinafter, the prior art will be described in more detail.
A sanitary mask according to the prior art includes an approximately semi-spherical mask main body taking the form of a filter sheet made of gauze or non-woven fabric, and a pair of band hangers attached to the mask main body, whereby the mask main body may enclose the wearer's face including the nose, the mouth and the jaw so that the rim of the mask main body comes into close contact with the wearer's face to the maximum extent possible. However, the above described prior art sanitary mask may fail to come into close contact at the rim of the mask main body with the wearer's face because of different face profiles of respective wearers.
Moreover, since the respective wearers have differences in the profile of the face and the height and curvature of the nose, the rim of the mask main body may have a greater space with the face around the nose, which may remarkably deteriorate the functionality of the mask.
To solve the above described problems, there has been developed and used a mask, in which a sponge is attached to an inner surface of a portion of a mask main body corresponding to a facial region around the wearer's nose by means of an adhesive member layer and an adjusting member in the form of a metallic wire formed of, e.g., soft aluminum is attached to the exterior of the mask main body at a position where the sponge is attached. In a state in which the mask is worn to cover the nose, the mouth and the jaw of the wearer by means of an upper holding band and a lower holding band, if the wearer bends the adjusting member to conform to the shape of the facial region around the wearer's nose, the cushioning sponge may come into close contact with the wearer's face around the nose.
However, in the case of the above described mask in which the sponge is locally attached only to the inner surface of the portion of the mask main body that will come into contact with the facial region around the nose and the flexible adjusting member is attached to the exterior of the mask main body at the position where the sponge is attached, although it may prevent generation of a space between the mask and the wearer's face around the nose, the remaining inner surface of the mask main body except for the portion where the sponge is attached may be spaced apart from the wearer's face at irregular distances owing to the irregular profile of the wearer's face, which results in deterioration in the functionality of the mask.
In all sanitary masks and dust proof masks generally used at present, constituent components thereof including, e.g., a mask main body, a dust proof exhaust valve, a metallic wire, a band configured to be hung at the ear or to surround the back of the head, and support elements are integrally formed with one another so as to be sold and used as a unitary product. Thus, after the mask is used two times in the morning and in the afternoon (for one day), reuse of the mask is impossible and the mask is disposed of as industrial waste.
In particular, in the case of a dust proof mask equipped with an exhaust valve that is used to protect a wearer from fine dust and toxic gas in industrial sites where a great amount of dust or particulate matter is generated, despite the fact that the exhaust valve is a very high price product fabricated with high precision and is repeatedly usable plural times, the high price exhaust valve should be disposed of because it is integrally formed with a mask main body.
Korean Utility Model Registration No. 389356 issued by the applicant of the present invention discloses a sanitary mask to solve the above described problem. In the disclosed sanitary mask, a semi-spherical mask main body is provided with an upper holding band and a lower holding band to assist in wearing the mask, and an adjusting member is provided at a partial exterior portion of the rim of the mask main body so as to be bendable to conform to the shape of the wearer's nose. In addition, a cushion filter is directly attached to the entire inner surface of the mask main body inside the rim by use of an adhesive layer member so as to come into close contact with the wearer's face. With the configuration disclosed in the above registration, the sanitary mask ensures that the rim portion of the mask main body comes into close contact with the wearer's face including the nose, the mouth and the jaw with the cushion filter interposed therebetween, which may prevent air not having passed through the mask main body and the cushion filter from entering the nose and the mouth of the wearer.
However, the disclosed sanitary mask as described above has a disadvantage in that adjusting the holding band is not easy because it is designed to be hung on the ear.